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I'm usually the last person to be confused about why it's "ok" for black youths to call each other niggaz on the city bus (i.e., I feel I can parse and hold in my head the simultaneous thought that it's actually not okay, yet that it isn't okay for white people to do so; moreover that it's not really an overwhelming concern what black kids call each other in light of larger societal problems).
I'm also certain I grasp why it was not okay that Fox News referred to Michelle as Barack's "baby mama" because it surely was intended to be denigrating and came from an institution that is part of a wider system of oppression.
But come on! This just doesn't feel cool.
I admit I have a pretty good sized crush on the incoming First Lady and perhaps this is just a reaction from that place. But this is annoying. And actually it's not because of Ms. Kaplan's article, which is essentially harmless.
We're all up in a shit fit when Fox News casually throws around "Obama's baby mama." But we smile and wink when the liberal press does it? "Obama's baby mama" actually has a certain lyric cadence, and someone would have used it eventually —as noted by the fact there's a "feminist blogger" Ms. Kaplan links to in her story. Let's be realistic, it would have come up for good or ill during the campaign and/or presidency that follows, eventually. I think it's more about Salon's choices than the article per se. Salon, this is annoying.
This is a blaring headline, this was the lead in my inbox on the salon newsletter. This is like the liberal press rubbing noses in it: Look at us! We have an irreverent sense of familiarity with the President and his family! With black people in general! We can do this because we found a black writer to write it!
I say this as a liberal. I've occasionally slipped into "street speak" to make an ironic point either among friends or online (just the other day I offhandedly wrote "I call him Barack because we tight"). I think everyone does it and I don't know if I always know when it's a problem and when it's not. But don't sit there and tell me that Fox=bad yet Salon=good.
